The Daoist View on Well-being
JingShen NeiShou BingAnCongLai 精神內守 病安從來
How can you get sick if you maintain the spirit within?
–Chapter 1 of HuangDiNeiJing 黃帝內經
The development of modern technology has brought us to a totally new way of living, which I call a high-speed, instant connection “spiritual way,” in contrast with the slower paced “physical way” of the long human history before the Industrial Revolution, and the mechanistic “Qi (energetic) way” which lasted between Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution. In contrast, the evolution of the human body seems to be moving in an opposite direction of our continuously improving living conditions. We are becoming less and less connected with our spiritual and Qi body as we become more and more reliant on manufactured resources. In my opinion, the direction of traditional and classical Chinese medicine is running along the same “opposite direction” current of the human body’s externally reliant evolution.
From the viewpoint of Daoism and Wu 巫, Chinese shamanism, each individual person carries three bodies: the physical body, energetic body, and spiritual body. For example, in the ancient Chinese medicine classic HuangDiNeiJing (said to be the recorded conversation between HuangDi, the Yellow Emperor, and his minister, who is purported to have reigned from 2697–2597 or 2698–2598 BC), we are told that “ancient” people lived a simple way of life, without too many burdens to carry in their hearts, were therefore more easily motivated to act in ways that connected their spiritual bodies with the web of the universe and thus learn to live in harmony with each other and with nature.
往古人居禽獸之閒，動作以避寒，陰居以避暑，內無眷慕之累，外無伸官之形，此恬憺之世，邪不能深入也。故毒藥不能治其內，鍼石不能治其外，故可移精祝由而已。
In ancient times, people lived among birds and beasts, moved their bodies and worked to avoid the cold weather, lived in shade to be quiet and to stay away from hot climates. Internally, they did not have desires. Externally, they did not achieve their ambitions. In that tranquil world, no evil/disease could invade their bodies. For healing, herbs were not used internally, and acupuncture needles were not used externally. It is only through ZhuYou 祝由 (chanting and talismans) that they transformed Jing to Qi [so healing could occur].
-Chapter 13 of HuangDiNeiJing 黃帝內經
Throughout history, we human beings have gradually deactivated our spiritual bodies by coming to over rely on external materials, advancing tools, and complicated technologies, all the while further feeding the delusion of separation - from within our selves, from others and from nature.
Growing up in a remote village on the southeast coast of China, one that was deeply immersed in ancient life style traditions of all of our forbearers, and having spent time with Tibetan monks and Tibetan families in the remote Tibetan plateau (before these areas were open to tourism), the first several decades of my life were steeped in direct experience of the power of the spiritual body. For example, long before I ever had a smart phone, I used my own internal “spiritual calendar app,” not needing to use any notes to help me remember my busy schedule, I woke up with my inner “body alarm app” instead of an alarm clock, I forecasted the weather with my “spiritual weather app,” I turned on my inner body “heating app” when I was in a cold environment, and so on.
I moved to the West in 2001 and began living in the comforts of modern life, and then I have gradually lost connection with using some of my “spiritual apps.” I am not sure if I will be able to re-activate all of the “spiritual apps” lying dormant in my body. I remain very grateful that I long ago made a conscious decision to pursue my daily cultivation practices so that I still have use of many of the “spiritual apps” within my physical body and may thus continue to offer my healing abilities, Yijing prediction skills, and inner cultivation practices for the benefit myself and others.
Since 1988, I have trained many students to activate their own “inner healing apps” and to discover their healing power and maintain well-being. I have witnessed myself and various individuals quickly recover from severe illness through their dedicated daily Qigong practices.
There are numerous ways to work with sickness and to uphold well-being in our modern times. Most of us would prefer to choose some easy method and some tangible material tools/medicines to help ourselves prevent disease and imbalance, and to “be healed” by someone else when we did not feel well. It is hard to try to tap into our own body’s self-healing abilities, to our “inner healing apps” for self-healing and maintenance of our own well-being, because it involves that we do our own work through daily cultivation practices.
To end this short article, I would like to share a conversation on WeiQi 衛氣 (what I call well-being Qi) from the podcast, Qiological, that I participated recently. In addition to my viewpoint, you will discover different perspectives from other Chinese medicine practitioners. I hope it will inspire you as you journey on your own path towards well-being!
Stay tuned for my next article, in which I will resume my discussion on the Dui palace hexagrams.